Day 1. Anacortes to Raser State Park

I had thought my post for day 1 should be more poetic, thoughtful, deeper. The truth is, I have been anxious for some time about our trip: Three months away from home, 4200 miles of self powered pedaling, unsupported except what we bring on our two bikes. 

Then the forecast of rain and possible rain-snow mix for the first three days did not calm my worrisome jitters. 

Then we started off. After being sent off by our friends Margaret and Andy, Al and Donna, we were doing it. 

The rain came and stayed. I had a flat tire within the first 13 miles. We took a few wrong turns. Yet we finished our first day. 

Along the way we met Larry, owner of Pioneer Market. He was out for a ride and I think he was happy to know he wasn’t the only crazy person who liked biking in the rain. And his deli made one nice sandwich. He led us through the town of Sedro Woolley directing us on our route 

We arrived at Raser state park. Happiest sight of the day. The ranger was extremely helpful and altered our tent site accommodation to a three sided shelter, aka Adirondack. We are warm, dry, fed, and showered, a hot shower! 

Then we met two more of Rhonda’s best friends, also on a quest to find Maine on a bicycle. I am headed over to their camp now to help them with some brake issues. 

Jon 

As we start, I think of a wedding that we attended last week in KS. What a joyous celebration! You only want the best for the young couple, but we all know it will be hard along the way. We aren’t afraid of hard, but still we don’t know what we don’t know. This is like marriage, we kissed, didn’t dip our tires because the tide was out & it was too muddy, we got on our way… Within the first mile, it started raining! It never let up. We are soaked through & I am pretty sure nothing will be dry in the morning. But there will be days like this & we encourage each other to keep going. As the saying goes, you have to learn to dance in the rain, or maybe bike in the rain. 

Someone I love very much always says, “anyone can do it in the sunshine.” Weathering the storms together is how you do marriage. So here’s to our celebration!!!

Rhonda